Contrary To Obama Statements, 2/3 Of Deportees Have Minor Records

By |April 7, 2014

With the Obama administration deporting illegal immigrants at a record pace, the president says the government is going after “criminals, gang bangers, people who are hurting the community, not after students, not after folks who are here just because they're trying to figure out how to feed their families.” A New York Times analysis of government records shows that since Obama took office, two-thirds of the nearly two million deportation cases involve people who had committed minor infractions, including traffic violations, or had no criminal record at all.

Twenty percent of the cases involved people convicted of serious crimes, including drug offenses. “It would have been better for the administration to state its enforcement intentions clearly and stand by them, rather than being willing to lean whichever way seemed politically expedient at any given moment,” said David Martin, deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security until December 2010. The Times analysis is based on data covering 3.2 million deportations over 10 years, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The largest increases were in deportations involving illegal immigrants whose most serious offense was listed as a traffic violation, including driving under the influence. Those cases more than quadrupled from 43,000 during the last five years of President George W. Bush's administration to 193,000 during the five years of Obama’s.

TCR's WEEKLY Criminal Justice Newsletter is FREE! Subscribe Here

Read Next

Now that President Trump’s hard line has made deportation a keener threat, a growing number of district attorneys are concluding that prosecutors should consider potential repercussions for immigrants before closing a plea deal, Want to read more? Please subscribe to The Crime Report!

Comments are closed.

TCR AT A GLANCE

A Supreme Court ruling in June overruled the conviction of a sex offender for violating his probation after posting on Facebook. But that opens up a new legal minefield over limitations on internet access for anyone convicted of a crime, warns a Washington, DC attorney.

Children are more deeply affected by crime, both directly and indirectly, than previously realized, according to a sobering new research paper from University of Pennsylvania Law School. Bureaucracy and incompetence stand in the way of help.

Militias have made public statements of neutrality but they are growing increasingly close to a segment of the right. Va. Gov. Terry McAuliffe complains that "they had better equipment than the State Police.

The GEO Group has signed $774 million worth of federal contracts so far this year. Last year, its livelihood was threatened by an Obama Justice Department order to phase out federal contracts with private lockups.